Hatchetfield Oneshots from my Ao3

The Guy Who Didn't Like... Theatre Kids

a/n the nerdy prudes are theatre kids + the hc that Paul is Richie's uncle

When Paul told his nephew to follow his dreams, the last thing he wanted was for that to be musical theatre. He would've supported him in whatever anime shit he wanted to do, but instead he had to go and pursue the one thing Paul had a distaste for. (Ok, the second thing. The first was Beanie's coffee— it really wasn't good.)

It wasn't actually that annoying, until the only bond he made with this cute barista was a mutual dislike for musicals. And now she was living in his house. Emma didn't like theatre either, but she was more sympathetic towards Richie doing theatre as an extracirricular.

Maybe Emma just thought he would learn to hate it, since she hated it after trying it out. But it didn't look like that was happening any time soon.

Richie would come home at like 8 pm every day, talking about all the fun things he and his friends did at rehearsal that day, and it may have made Emma a bit angry that she didn't have the same experiences with the performance arts when she was his age.

Richie probably didn't realize that his interest was a bit of an annoyance to his uncle and his uncle's girlfriend.

One day, Richie brought two friends home to practice singing for the musical. One was his friend Ruth, who had supposedly convinced the other two to join, and in return she would audition for cast rather than crew. There was also Peter, who Paul only knew since he was Ted's younger brother.

It wasn't until they went upstairs to start practicing that Paul realized how much he really fucking disliked musicals. He didn't hate musicals, but by god was the music killing his brain.

They were actually very good at singing, and he complimented them at first. But being stuck downstairs, having to listen to the same melody and lyrics over and over made him probably go insane. At least Emma was there to comfort him; she didn't like musicals either. And now that wasn't their only bond.

But he was still forced to listen to the three kids sing the ensemble parts of several of the songs. Featuring Ruth belting out D.O.A. (which wasn't even her role).

When the kids eventually had to leave, Peter was picked up first by his girlfriend. How in the world that motherfucker got a girlfriend, Paul didn't know. What he did know is that Emma spent the next 30 minutes chatting up the mayor's daughter, talking about their nerdy boyfriends.

Ruth just rode her bike, and before she left Emma had complemented her on her singing.

That left Paul, his girlfriend, and his nephew in the house. He looked around at them both, and told Richie, "Next time, have your rehearsal at one of their houses."